Message from the Dean

Welcome Message

The Graduate School of Arts and Letters (GSAL) has its origins in Tohoku Imperial University’s Faculty of Law and Letters, established in 1922. After World War II, three new faculties replaced the old one: Law, Economics, and Arts and Letters. In 2022, the GSAL celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the original faculty. The chosen theme of the related events and festivities was “the union of grounded knowledge and soaring sensibility.”

The Faculty of Law and Letters was born in challenging times. Its foundation was bracketed by the Great Influenza epidemic, which broke out in 1918 and claimed some 390.000 lives in the span of two years, and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Only a few years later, in 1925, the Peace Preservation Law delivered a fatal blow to Taishō democracy. Yet, all these tragedies only hardened the resolve of our predecessors, who endeavored to sow seeds of knowledge on Sendai soil. From these seeds sprouted countless outstanding researchers and responsible members of the public. Generation after generation of faculty and alumni of the GSAL have spread their wings, resolved to confront the problems troubling society.

Ours is also a time of tremendous changes and hardships. Our well-worn beliefs about the role and future of individuals and society demand a fundamental reassessment after proving inadequate in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War. At times like these, the humanities and social sciences become indispensable. It is their task to discover comprehensive, well-conceived answers to the question of what constitutes humanity and human society.

The year 2023 marks 100 years since the Faculty of Law and Letters welcomed a female student, the first in Japan to study humanities at the university level. October 2023 launches the International Graduate School of Arts and Letters (IGSAL), our first English-only graduate course for international students. One of Tohoku University’s cornerstones is its open-door policy. Upholding this principle, the GSAL embraces various values and personalities. Here, in the GSAL, you can help each other grow while recognizing your respective differences.

YANAGIHARA Toshiaki

KIMURA Toshiaki,
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University